Happy Birthday To Mew!
by lolkittie64
Summary: One-shot about Pudding's birthday. Slight PuddingXTaruto. This is my first Tokyo Mew Mew story, enjoy!


I woke up to a cry coming from the bed below me, ruining what was meant to be my birthday lie-in. Sleepily, I trotted down the ladder of my bunk to reassure my little sister.  
"Onee-chan, onee-chan! I had a bad dream!" Heicha wailed, holding out her chubby arms for a hug. All I wanted to do was go back to bed, but I knew I had to be the big sister and put her needs before mine. I gave her a hug, telling her it was only a dream, and went downstairs to get tissues. I could hear the boys scrapping in their room, obviously taking no notice that it was my birthday and I wanted peace. Heicha cried out again, so I hurried upstairs to give her the tissues. I stroked her chestnut hair and smiled. Heicha was my little sister, and I loved her with all my heart. I felt so sorry that she had four brothers, so I tried to make it up to her by being the best big sister I could be. She smiled back at me, and settled down back into her bed. Just then, Chincha yelled in pain. It looked like their scrapping had gotten serious. I winced, hoping Heicha wouldn't wake up again, but luckily she didn't stir.

I stomped down the landing and burst into the boys' bedroom. I was shocked to see the state it was in. There were dirty clothes everywhere, _Oishi_ comics spread out on their desk and Chincha crying out in pain on the floor. As far as I could see, he was just bruised a bit, but the poor little guy was only seven and it probably frightened him a bit. The others were looking guilty, not daring to look me in the eye. I was so tired, I just wanted to get this over with.  
"Okay, guys. What happened?" I said, wearily. They all started talking at once, but I picked up the words 'accident' and 'pillow fight' and 'sorry'. I sighed, and spoke again.  
"Honcha, go get some band-aids. The rest of you stay here and try not to get into any more trouble, okay?" They nodded solemnly, and I left to get ready for work.

My maid uniform was hanging in my closet. I grabbed it and put it on my bed for later. I plaited my shoulder length hair into six plaits, as always, and got my orange and white Cafe Mew Mew uniform on. Heicha was now awake, and clambered out of her bed to hold my hand. I took her downstairs and told her to sit down while I got the boys. I went upstairs yet again, and told the boys to come downstairs for breakfast. Chincha was now quite happy, playing aeroplanes with his brothers. I called them again, and they reluctantly followed me downstairs.

Heicha was still sitting in her seat, playing with a lock of her hair.  
"Onee-chan, what are we having for breakfast?" she asked me innocently. I was busy foraging in the cupboards to see if we had enough for miso soup and nori. Heicha, the boys and me loved this breakfast and usually ate it everyday. However, there was no tofu or soy sauce left, so I had to compromise. Rice dishes were easy enough, so I decided we'd do rice porridge."We're having okayu." I replied, taking the rice out of the cupboard and pouring it into the boiling water. The quadruplets groaned, and Heicha looked slightly disappointed. I couldn't blame them. Okayu was the most bland breakfast item there was."But onee-chan, we want nori!" cried Hanacha.  
"If you stop wailing, maybe I'll give you brown sugar with it" I told him. That settled his hash. Hanacha has a massive sweet tooth, as do all the boys.I served it to them in our simple china bowls, and they all ate with relish. I too had a bowl, sitting down next to Lucha. He beamed at me as I sat down, and I remembered just how much I loved my siblings, no matter what. I was certain they hadn't remembered my birthday, though. No-one ever seemed to remember my birthday.

Okayu is possibly the messiest breakfast for little kids ever, as they had it smeared all over their faces. As soon as I had finished my breakfast, I got up to get a flannel for them. Honcha was the worst, whereas Heicha hadn't got it on her face at all, although she had left more than half of her okayu. I gave them all a quick dab, and got Heicha dressed for kindergarten. The boys ran ahead, old enough to go to school by themselves but not old enough to be entrusted with taking Heicha to kindergarten. I walked Heicha to kindergarten slowly, so that she could take a look at the birds and smell the flowers. When we got there, Heicha gave me a hug and then ran off to find her friends. I had a quick look at the clock to check the time. I had fifteen minutes, so I could make it if I ran. I felt downcast that no-one remembered my birthday, but I kept running until I reached Cafe Mew Mew. I stared at the pink building, feeling depressed that this was meant to be my special day and yet it seemed it was just an average day, taking care of my siblings and going to work. I sighed heavily, and ambled up the path leading to the cafe. I opened the door, and colours flashed before my eyes.

When I brushed away the brightly coloured confetti, I saw my friends: Ichigo, Mint, Retasu and Zakuro.  
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY PUDDING!" they all laughed, blowing streamers and chucking more confetti at me. I laughed too, but was confused.  
"How did you guys know it was my birthday? Even my siblings don't know..." I trailed off as I spotted my siblings, wearing party hats and smiling at me.  
"Happy Birthday, Onee-chan!" they all chorused.  
"How did you guys get here?" I asked, scooping Heicha up onto my hip.  
"Sensei gave me a lift when I told her it was your birthday, onee-chan!" Heicha answered, looking at me with big brown eyes.  
"And we told our Sensei we'd be late so we could come" Chincha piped up. I felt touched that they'd made such a big effort to come and to keep it a secret. I knew that Chincha was especially bad at keeping secrets.  
"But how did you guys know it was my birthday?" I inquired, turning to my friends.  
"Keiichiro told us" Retasu told me, tilting her head to one side and smiling. I noticed Keiichiro and Ryou standing near the entrance of the kitchen. When Keiichiro heard his name, he said,  
"Come in here, Pudding, I have something show you," he said with a wink. "Everyone else can come too." I went into the kitchen with Heicha still perched on my hip, and saw something that completely astounded me.

It was a pudding cake. Golden-brown, covered in oozing maple syrup with a dollop of chou a la creme on top. Tientsin (sweet chestnuts) were placed around the pudding decoratively, and 12 candles were placed on top. I let my siblings blow out one each, my friends blew out one each also, as did Ryou and Keiichiro. That left one for me. I closed my eyes, and instead of wishing for mum to come back alive like I did every birthday since she died, I wished that I would always have my siblings and my friends to rely on. As I blew out the last candle, everyone cheered.

My brothers scuttled off back to school, and I took Heicha back to her kindergarten. Ryou said I could take the rest of the day off, so I walked home. On the way, I met someone familiar. Taruto. He stopped in front of me, and said, shyly,  
"This is for you." I was amazed as I had never seen Taruto shy before. He handed me a small box. I was going to thank him for it, but he flew away before I could. I opened the box, and inside was a tiny golden banana charm on a fine silver chain. Inside the box there was a note that read:  
_To Pudding,_  
_Happy Birthday!_  
_From Taruto_

I smiled. This day just got a whole lot better.


End file.
